


The Wedding Guest

by AndromedaSmith



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Character Study, Endgame, F/M, KaraMel, Not the supercorp you’re looking for, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:01:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23065897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndromedaSmith/pseuds/AndromedaSmith
Summary: The groom gets some help with his cold feet from an unexpected source, who gets something in return.
Relationships: Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers/Mon-El, Lena Luthor & Mon-El
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40





	The Wedding Guest

**Author's Note:**

> I started this just thinking that the world needed more Karamel endgame weddings. (Because of course it does.) Somehow it evolved into what I hope is a respectful counterpoint to dancingthru’s story “lightning strikes (maybe once, maybe twice).” Please have a look at that one after you’re done here.
> 
> Takes place sometime after S6.

“Where’s Mon-El?” Alex hollered.

The group of friends gathered for Kara and Mon-El’s wedding looked around the room and its half-finished decorations, then at each other. No one had seen the groom.

“We have to get out of here now,” Nia said. “That alien ship isn’t going to wait.”

“Someone has to stay behind with the ... special guest,” Brainy pointed out.

“I’ll stay,” said Kate. “Probably best if Batwoman isn’t seen away from Gotham anyway.”

“Thanks Kate,” Alex replied. “Remember, if Kara calls, do _not_ let her know where we went. She needs to finish getting herself ready so James and Kelly can get her here on time. She does not need to go super-heroing on her wedding day.”

“Shouldn’t that also apply to Mon-El?” Brainy asked innocently.

“Good point. Debate it later,” growled J’onn as he, Alex, Brainy, and Nia swept out of the room.

Left alone in the room, Kate paced, absent-mindedly checking escape routes and lines of fire. There weren’t many of either in the cozy room at the Midvale Country Club - just a fireplace and set of double doors leading to a garden.

Heels clicking on the hard floor, ankle monitoring bracelet clunking, the special guest entered from the hallway.

“That is the most _overdone_ restroom I’ve ever seen. Flowered skirts on the toilets? Really?” Lena Luthor stopped at the sight of the nearly empty room. “Where is everyone?” she asked.

“Last-minute emergency,” Kate replied, tight-lipped.

“Of course. Well, saves them the trouble of trying to be polite to me,” Lena said.

Kate couldn’t think of anything to say in response. She stared Lena down.

“I know you don’t trust me, and I don’t blame you,” said Lena. “But Kara really wanted me here, and Alex had to pull a lot of strings to make it happen, so let’s practice being civil for her sake.”

Kate nodded.

Lena moved toward the double doors and paused, her hand on the door handle. She looked back at Kate. “I haven’t had a lot of fresh air recently. I’m not going to try anything.” 

“Damn right you’re not,” said Kate. 

Lena let herself out. 

* * *

The sounds of birds and the ocean in the distance were soothing. Feeling Kate’s eyes on her back, Lena strolled slowly down the gravel path between the waist-high hedges. She wasn’t exactly the outdoors type, but a year in prison could make anyone yearn for some sunlight.

_You’d think I’d have had plenty of time to reflect._ But the noisy prison confines weren’t exactly conducive to introspection. For the first time in a long time, Lena could hear herself think.

_Why am I here?_

Not here on this planet, but here at this wedding. After all that had happened, it was hard to believe that Kara wanted to rebuild their friendship, that she wanted Lena here. 

_Why do I deserve her faith in me?_

Idly Lena wondered what might have been. If Kara hadn’t lied to her. If Lex hadn’t told her about those lies and then lied to her himself. If she hadn’t lied to Kara.

She turned a corner and stopped short at the sight of a dark-haired man sitting at one end of a bench, shoulders slumped, head in hands. He looked up at her, a bleak expression on his face.

“Lena.”

“Mon-El. What are you doing out here? Everyone was looking for you.”

He sighed and rubbed his hands across his face. She looked at the bench and he gestured for her to sit.

“These are much better circumstances than the last wedding we both attended,” she blurted.

He looked at her, a quizzical expression on his face. 

_Stupid_ , Lena chided herself. Reminding him of their almost-marriage at the hands of his mother led straight to memories of the Daxamite invasion—an invasion _she_ had abetted. The Daxamites had been repelled but at a tremendous cost for Mon-El: watching his mother die, being forced to leave Earth. _Maybe not the best topic right now._

Mon-El continued to sit in silence, staring at the ground. Lena searched for something to say. 

“So...honeymoon plans?”

He raised his head, looking straight ahead. “Private. To be honest, Lena, I don’t completely trust you. Kara’s forgiven you, she wanted you to be here. But what you did to her.. and the others … it’s hard to look past that.”

Lena swallowed. She couldn’t argue with him about this, not now - but she had to do something. This was the only wedding she was going to get to attend for a long time. No way was it going to end in disaster. 

“You and I have a lot in common, you know,” she said. “Raised to fulfill our families’ expectations, then betrayed by them.”

“And this is relevant to the current situation, how?” Mon-El responded, a bit of rancor in his tone.

“Why don’t you tell me what the current situation is?” Lena snarked back.

He said nothing, turning his head to look at the sky.

Lena looked at Mon-El, searching his face for clues. It was hard to reconcile the distraught man next to her with the calm, stoic leader she’d seen in the fight against Reign. She’d never really known him that well; he was another part of Kara’s life that Kara hadn’t really shared. Being left out still rankled.

Finally Lena deciphered the expression on Mon-El’s face. “Are you _nervous_?” she asked, incredulous. “You’ve saved the world how many times? In how many centuries? And you’re nervous about _getting married_?”

“My previous marriage failed.”

“It failed because she lied to you! And because you were still in love with the person you’re about to marry!”

Mon-El turned to Lena, eyebrows raised, obviously surprised that Kara had filled Lena in on the whole story.

He sighed again. “Kara is just so ... bright. And beautiful. And strong. Do I really deserve her?”

“Mon-El, this is ridiculous! Kara wouldn’t be marrying you if she didn’t think so.”

“I was broken for a long time. What if I let her down the way my family did me? Well, they let you down you too, I guess,” he conceded.

“I let _her_ down too,” Lena said softly. 

“Which makes me wonder why I’m sitting here talking to you about this!” he snapped.

“Sorry. I just... don’t know if I can do this. I keep thinking I should go back to the future, leave her to find someone less...scarred. I love her so much. I just want her to be happy.”

It was Lena’s turn to sit in silence. Her own feelings about Kara were complicated: the still-simmering hurt about Kara’s lies, guilt about her own misguided attempts at revenge, relief for Kara’s forgiveness, resignation about Kara turning her in to the authorities. And, maybe, some small amount of longing: there had been a few times where she wondered if Kara might be more than just a friend. _Also not the best topic right now._

Did she want Kara to be happy?

“Mon-El,” Lena said quietly. “If Kara has enough love and forgiveness for someone like me, she surely does for you. The sacrifices you’ve made for each other are proof of that. And you _do_ make her happy. You’re not going to betray her. You’re not your family, or your past...” Lena trailed off.

_If Mon-El wasn’t his family or his past,_ she _didn’t have to be either_. Kara had told her it wasn’t too late to change. For the first time, Lena started to believe it. The impact of her own words showed on Lena’s face. She turned to Mon-El and saw a small smile break his grim visage as he recognized her expression.

“Sounds like something we both needed to hear.”

Lena briefly smiled back at him. Some of the tension seemed to have left Mon-El’s frame, but he didn’t exactly seem to be in a marrying mood yet. God knows she wasn’t the best person to talk about feelings, but Mon-El clearly needed _someone_ , and she was it.

“You wrote your own vows, right?”

He nodded, scratching his jaw.

“You probably need to practice them. Maybe saying the words out loud will help.”

She had seen the man in front of her face down his own mother, and an older version of that same man face down Reign, unflinching. Neither expression compared to the determination she saw on his face now.

“Third time’s the charm,” Mon-El cracked a brief smile, pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, took a deep breath, and began to speak.

Lena gave him her full attention. It didn’t take long for Mon-El’s voice to strengthen and for a few tears to begin to trickle down both their faces. _At least I got the mascara-smearing out of the way early._

Neither of them had noticed Kate come up behind the bench, a frown on her face as she overheard Mon-El’s words.

“What the hell?” Kate growled.

“What do you mean?” Lena asked quickly, wiping her eyes.

“I leave you alone for ten minutes and you’ve got Kara’s fiancé professing his love?” Kate almost shouted. “I heard you two had some kind of forced marriage business a long time ago, but this is ridiculous. You’re not that good, Lena. ”

Mon-El looked back and forth between Kate and Lena as they glared at each other. The normally unflappable Legion leader was flushed to the tips of his ears and stuck for words. Finally he found his voice.

“That’s...not what this is,” he muttered. “I needed to practice my vows and Lena was helping.”

Kate glanced first at Mon-El’s red face and then at Lena’s stony, pale one. “I believe you. When you’re finished, come on back in. The rest of the team is on their way back.”

“Way back from where?” Mon-El asked, his color returning to normal.

“Some emergency with an alien ship,” Kate replied.

“Sprock!” Mon-El swore. “I should have gone.”

“It’s your wedding day. I think you can be excused,” Kate said drily.

“Besides, if you went, then Kara would have been mad that she didn’t go.” Lena added.

“Good point,” Mon-El said. “We’ll be back in a few minutes, thanks Kate.” She nodded and walked away.

An awkward silence stretched between them. Finally Lena broke it.

“It’s a good thing that our almost-wedding didn’t work out. But I could have done a lot worse. You and Kara are about the luckiest aliens on this planet, to have each other.” 

_This_ time it was the right thing to say. The frown lines on Mon-El’s forehead disappeared as he grinned, for the first time today.

He reached over and squeezed her hand. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Take your time. I’m going back in before Kate starts trying to figure out how I’m planning to escape.”

* * *

Everyone made it back to the wedding site with time to spare. Amazingly enough, even Kara arrived on time with no last-minute disasters. The bride and groom were taking a page from the Earth tradition of not seeing each other before the wedding ceremony. 

Kryptonian marriage traditions didn’t have the notion of anyone being “given away.” Daxamite tradition had both parties escorted to the ceremony by their entire families. So they split the difference, with Kara escorted by Eliza and Mon-El by Alura. As they met in the hallway just outside the room where their friends and family were waiting, everyone inside heard the single word that escaped Kara’s lips.

“Wow.”

Her fiancé—about to be husband — really did look amazing. His dark hair was just slightly mussed, the beard neatly trimmed. The grey suit fit him perfectly and matched his eyes, shining when he finally raised them to look at Kara. As they walked slowly into the room, Lena saw Mon-El’s lips move but heard nothing. His words must have been meant only for Kara’s super-hearing. 

She was beautiful. Kara’s blue eyes radiated joy and her golden hair cascaded down her bare shoulders. The strapless dress with the fitted bodice and full skirt made her look like a princess. _Well, she is marrying a former prince_ , Lena thought, smiling at the memory of Kara’s story about the Vera Wang gown. 

Kara, Eliza, Mon-El and Alura reached the front of the room. The mothers took turns embracing Kara and Mon-El and joined the small group gathered around them. Only those who knew the bride and groom in both their identities were present, allowing them to be themselves.

A camera shutter clicked softly in the background; James had, of course, claimed the role of official photographer. Lena turned briefly to watch her ex, admiring his fierce concentration as he captured the moment.

The wedding officiant was a woman Lena hadn’t met, whom everyone referred to as “Pam from HR.” She stood with Kara and Mon-El before their friends and family. 

“Kara and Mon-El. You were both born under the light of Rao; the Universe has brought you together under the light of Sol. Your road to marriage hasn’t been a straight path, and everyone who loves you is so glad to be here and share in your joy. We stand with you to witness the declaration of your love and the joining of your hearts,” Pam smiled and looked at Mon-El. He nodded at her and took Kara’s hands in his.

“Kara...” Mon-El’s voice cracked. He cleared his throat and started again.

“Kara. I once told someone that you were the best thing that’s ever happened to me, the best thing I know. And it’s true.”

“I’m still the luckiest person ever, to have landed at your feet. For everything you’ve done for me—for everyone—I owe you more than I can ever repay. What I can do is promise to love you and care for you and never leave your side. In victory and defeat, safety and peril, for as long as we live.”

“I promise to fill your every moment with joy, to have your back, to watch you while you sleep and make you laugh while you’re awake. To keep you safe and help you keep the world safe and to never, ever let you forget that I love you.”

A collective sigh went up from the group as Mon-El finished. He and Kara were so focused on each other that they didn’t see the smiles around them. But they hardly had to; the joy in the room was palpable. Nia squeezed Brainy’s hand; Alex leaned into Kelly; J’onn, Eliza and Alura beamed. 

Lena was at the edge of the group — which would have been her preferred place even if she didn’t have the history she did with these people — but she didn’t feel like an outcast. She could feel the warmth and love in the room and contribute her own affection, turning to smile at James when he put down his camera to pat her shoulder. 

_Another friendship it was time to rebuild_. This _was why she was here._ Kara knew Lena was more than her family or her past; finally Lena was starting to realize it too.

“Thank you, Mon-El,” Pam said. She nodded at Kara.

“Mon-El. I almost lost you so many times. I couldn’t be happier to be here with you now, telling you that I love you and want to be your partner for the rest of my life. We are best friends and lovers, and I promise that will never change.”

“I promise to love you and cherish you and never, ever take you for granted. I promise to ask for your advice and listen to it, to laugh with you and to cry with you. I promise to keep the world spinning with you, no matter what life brings us.”

“We both came to this planet with nothing and found a family. I promise to share our love with all of them. I love you, Mon-El.”

“Thank you Kara,” said Pam, wiping the corner of her eye. “The rings, please.” Alex and Brainy handed Nth metal rings to Kara and Mon-El, who carefully slid them onto each other’s fingers.

“With this exchange of rings, you declare your love for one another and your intention to be faithful partners as long as you live. You seal this promise in the presence of the love of your family and friends. Kara Zor-El of Krypton and Mon-El of Daxam, Kara Danvers and Mike Matthews, I now pronounce you wife and husband. Please kiss your spouse.”

The newlyweds wasted no time delving into a long and passionate kiss, to the applause and laughter of the rest. Lena joined in and felt herself wearing a silly grin at the antics of her friend and her (however briefly) former groom. _Wait, was that a_ wink _Alex threw her?_

At the front of the room, Mon-El and Kara had finally broken for air. Their eyes sparkled as they gazed at one another, foreheads touching. As they turned toward their family and friends, Lena could see the joy radiate from both of them.

_Weddings are new beginnings_. In more ways than one.

  
  
  



End file.
